Romanian Masters of Mathematics Competition

This week, Haolin Zhao (Upper Eighth) received a (very strong) Silver medal from the Romanian Masters of Mathematics (RMM) in Bucharest, scoring 28 points (out of 42).

The competition is very similar to the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and is held during two consecutive days, which were 28th and 29th February this year, in which students are given six problems (three on each day). Unofficially, the RMM is thought of as the competition with the hardest problems, harder even than the IMO. This year, together with all the participants physically present in Bucharest, there were students sitting the Olympiad online.

On the first day, Haolin lost only one point, on problem 3, which was the hardest problem of the day, and scored 20 out of 21. This result was outstanding and among the top 10 in the entire competition, including online participants. On the second day he managed to solve the first problem completely and made little progress on the second, which gave him 8 more points, and with a total of 28 out of 42 his result was the 13th highest among those who were physically present in Bucharest, and 19th highest when online competitors are included. To be precise, there were 6 participants with 28 points, as Haolin, and those positions are therefore shared.

Haolin’s result was the second highest in the UK Team and was only two points short of a Gold medal. This is a very strong result, and an amazing improvement from last year, when Haolin scored 9 points (out of 42) and received an Honourable mention.